Campground Fire Claims 2 RVs, Car and Park Records

Two campers and a car became engulfed in flames in Middleboro, Mass., on Wednesday morning (March 21) at the Tispaquin Family Camp, firefighters said.

Around 11:07 a.m. an emergency call was relayed to the Middleboro Fire Department. Wind caused the fire to spread from one camper to another and a car at the campground, said Middleboro Fire Department Captain Glenn MacNayr.

The fire took a little over two hours to put out, MacNayr said, but nobody was hurt and no firefighters were injured, the Taunton Daily Gazette reported.

“One camper was fully involved when we arrived, and a second camper was partially involved when we arrived,” MacNayr said. “All three of the vehicles ended up being totaled. The wind was coming off the pond, driving the flames toward other campers, which we were able to save.”

MacNayr said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

“Investigators are trying to sort out where and how it started,” he said.

MacNayr said nobody was in the campers when they caught fire and that occupants of the camper believed to first catch fire were outside of the campgrounds at that point of the morning.

“They just happened not to be there,” he said.

The other camper that caught on fire was vacant for the season, MacNayr said.

“We think it started in the camper that was fully-engulfed when we got there, it was a 32-footer,” MacNayr said. “We are still investigating, but we believe it started with the first camper and wind spread it to a second camper, a 36-footer, and car with it.”

MacNayr said none of the other campers at the campground were involved and no one camping there had to be moved or evacuated due to the fire.

Owner Barbara Holton said the campground was closed at the time of the fire and it was first fire in 29 years since she and her husband opened the campground.

“We have campfires here during the summer,” Holton said. “I’m very distraught about this. But nobody was hurt and that was the important part.

Holton said the fire was restricted to a small section of the campground. One camper that caught fire, she said, was owned by “snowbirds” who are now in Florida.

Holton said the campground doesn’t open until April 15.

Holton said the other camper that caught fire belongs to the campground, and was used to hold business papers. She said all of the documents the campground had for campers there during the summer were destroyed in the fire.

“I keep all my records and papers there, all campers names and addresses, and my computer where I keep all my tax information,” she said. “I lost every bit of my paperowrk that I’ve had for the last 29 years, along with all my pictures of the campground. I’m just really upset about it. I don’t know how it happened. … We’ll be working to clean it up.”